In this paper, first the limitations of the ray-based method and the one-way wave-field extrapolation migration (WEM) in imaging steeply dipping structures are discussed by some examples. Then a new method of the reverse time migration (RTM), used in imaging such complex structures is presented. The proposed method uses a new wave-field extrapolator called the Leapfrog-Rapid Expansion Method (L...

Reverse time migration (RTM) is theoretically more accurate than traditional migration methods because it computes numerical solutions to the complete wave equation. But RTM is computationally expensive especially for 3D data. To overcome this expense, Luo amd Schuster (2004) suggested a bottom-up reverse time datuming (RTD) method that promised to significantly decrease the computational time ...

Abstract. In this paper, we revisit the reverse-time imaging procedure. We discuss an inverse scattering transform derived from reverse-time migration (RTM), and establish its relation with generalized Radon transform inversion. In the process, the explicit evaluation of the so-called normal operator is avoided, at the cost of introducing other pseudodifferential operator factors. Using techniq...

The standard reverse-time migration (RTM) algorithm is usually described as zero-lag correlation of the backprojected data with the source wavefield. The data are back-projected by a finite-difference algorithm, where each trace acts as a source-time history of a point source at the geophone location. This is a simple and easily understood migration method, but appears inflexible to improvement...

Reverse time migration (RTM) is the method of choice for imaging complex subsurface structures. In this paper, we show that slightly modifying the conventional formulation, plus implementing an appropriate imaging condition, yields a true amplitude version of RTM that provides the correct amplitude-versus-angle relation. We also discuss different ways to suppress the migration artifacts and sho...

Reverse-time de-migration (RTDM) is formulated as the adjoint operator of reverse-time migration (RTM). In acoustic medium, RTM provides a good approximation to the inverse of RTDM, and can be used to iteratively invert for the reflectivity image in least-squares RTM (LSRTM). In viscoelastic medium, however, the adjoint of the RTDM operator is far from its inverse because of amplitude attenuati...

Reverse time migration (RTM) is a commonly employed imaging technique in seismic applications (e.g., to image reservoirs of oil). Its standard implementation cannot account for multiple scattering/reverberation. For this reason it has not yet found application in nondestructive evaluation (NDE). This paper applies RTM imaging to NDE applications in bounded samples, where reverberation is always...

We develop a representation of reverse-time migration (RTM) in terms of Fourier integral operators, the canonical relations of which are graphs. Through the dyadic parabolic decomposition of phase space, we obtain the solution of the wave equation with a boundary source and homogeneous initial conditions using wave packets. On this basis, we develop a numerical procedure for the reverse-time co...

Reverse time migration produces an image by crosscorrelating the solution of the wave equation solved forward in time with the wave equation solved backwards in time. Solution of the wave equation can be computationally prohibitive for large subsurface regions. Therefore one typically combines a finite difference discretization of the wave equation with a parallel computing paradigm such as dom...